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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Donation page added

I added a "Donate" page where you can donate via PayPal.
Look at the top of the blog in the page menu.

Some of you expressed the desire or willingness to donate, so why not?
I put a disclaimer on the donation page to remind you what a donation is and what you can expect from it.
I won't play the poor sad puppy or salesman tricks on you to get more donation money.
Just give what you want, if you feel like it!

17 comments:

I like the suggestion somebody made on one of the other comment pages. You should set up a project on that 8bitfunding website (google it, I don't think we can post links). Not a project for your flash games (boo, flash!) but one for Rogue Survivor.

If you give me money and you get ANYTHING in return, whatever it is, even my poopoo in your mailbox, its a sale.

If I don't do these "sales" too often or don't earn "too much", its ok. "Too often" and "too much" are vague and depends on who you ask. The French administration might decide its not worth fucking with me. Or they might decide it is worth it.

If I set up something like 8bitfunding, it would be considered a regular activity, and it would be illegal unless I register a company and all that crap.

That's why I wrote those stupid disclaimers in the donation page, to make it clear you get nothing in return for donating.

You could just set the rewards on 8bitfunding as "Nothing" for everything and explain why. I'd still throw some money your way to support Rogue Survivor even if I weren't to get a reward like that in return. Just continued development of RS would be enough reward for me.

Also, I love France and plan to emigrate there in the next few years but French bureaucracy is ridiculous :)

Cost nothing to setup, not much documentation to fill. Can be added to the RSA or other source of income during 4 years granted you don't go above a given revenue. 20% of your benefits go to the state, though.

But... I'm not a beggar :(The donation page is here, regulars can contribute if they want. I don't feel like spamming teh interwebs asking for donations for a game I'm not sure I will be able/willing to continue.

Rj your game is almost complete in a way, you could add more items/actors and forget about storyline for 1.0 and it would be heaven and you could flash nonstop and people would be glad to have 1.0 idk just an idea

4 years, not 3 last time I checked (but it may have changed since). And there's a few tricks you'll have to check on related boards, because it's definitively not explained well in the official papers. Anyway, I suggested that as a general answer, not specific to RS only, as you seem concerned to know if it's legit or not to accept paypal money in France (like anybody is going to care). I'm doing computer repairs and network installations using AE, that's why i suggested it in the first place. Dunno what I'll do when taxes come in, though. Probably kill it and renew it if it's possible through some loophole ^^.

Btw it's not begging at all, it's a donate-ware, like DF (*not* saying you're gonna make anywhere near what's he is making) and plenty of other games. People enjoying the game(s) offer money for the experience they had. Morally speaking it's way above selling and begging, imho.

This said, I agree with the anonymous guy, RS is kinda completed and is much more polished that 90% of roguelikes I know. Adding a few items/weapons and actors, and increasing mod-ability a bit would definitively be enough for a 1.0 build, no matter if you go back at it or not.

Also, crowdfunding through 8bitfunding isn't begging and nor is it selling if you don't enter any rewards (and this gets past the limitation of you being unable to sell). Instead you're saying "Hey guys, I'd like to work on Rogue Survivor but I need to spend my time learning Flash instead for my career/because there's more money in it. If I could get $500 funding I'd be able to continue work on RS, finish it off and put out a nice 1.0 version because I'll be able to afford to put the Flash-learning on hiatus for a while until it's done". I, and many other people, would have no problem with this scenario and would gladly offer you funding to do what Serial Kicked said: skip the storyline for now if you want and just add some more items, actors, replayable content (that's what we love roguelikes and RS for, the replayability, not the story) and make it really easy for the community to add in new items, enemies, and NPCs using a text editor and MSPaint and then release it.

You could then work on your Flash skills, the RS community can enjoy a more complete version with content updates coming from within itself and the community can continue to grow. Then you could possibly realise what a gem you've got here and might decide to start updating the game yourself, and I'm sure donations would still keep coming in.

with regards to modding. If RS had something similar it'd be fantastic. Imagine someone wanting to add a new weapon, say a chainsaw, and being able to make it just by editing items.txt and adding:

s with ]s so the comment box doesn't parse them.

Honestly, if you could add a modding system similar to this and then a crafting system in game then you could just tidy things up a bit and release it as 1.0 and let the community make the rest of the content for you. Imagine someone being able to use notepad and paint to add a 'Nails' item, which can be combined with the current 'Baseball Bat' to create a new item 'Spiked Bat' which is just the bat graphic with some grey dots, and the bat text properties but with some additional damage. That same person, or some else, could then add a nailgun weapon which uses their Nails item as ammo, and someone else might make a mod which adds a new barricade construction with higher health but requires either wooden planks + loaded nailgun or wooden planks + nails + hammer. Someone else makes a new type of fire tile/item and a hazmat suit which makes you immune to fire. Someone else creates a new type of zombie which wears a hazmat suit.

What I said was that crowdfunding is not begging. You're saying "Hey, I'd like to work on RS but I need to practice Flash for my job/because there's more money in it. If I had $500 of funding I could finish RS and put out a 1.0 version since I'd be able to afford to put the Flash learning on a hiatus for a bit". I, and many others, would have no problem with that scenario. Just make an 8bitfunding project and see how you do, I think you'll be surprised! Again, just don't set any rewards and explain why.

Like Serial Kicked said, you don't need much for a 1.0 release. In fact, forget making any new content like the story, items, actors, enemies and just give us a few more systems and moddability. Add a crafting system and making a relevant skill so we can mix Nails and a Bat to make a Spiked Bat as just one example. If you implemented a modding system like Goblin Camp's (Google "Modding Goblin Camp") then the RS community would add all the content for you and you could work on Flash as you watch the RS community grow and then when you finally realise what a gem you've got here you might decide to come back to it and make some updates yourself.

If anyone can add a new item just through editing a text file and making a little sprite in MSPaint then the modding community will soar, and with it the content, and with that the number of players. Imagine someone adding a 'Nails' item and a 'Spiked Bat' item which has a couple of tags that allow it to be crafted by combining a bat and nails. Someone else could then add a nailgun weapon which uses the Nails item as ammo, and a third person may then add a new barricade construction with uses planks and a nailgun and has more health, and someone else could then add an alternative way of constructing it and allow you to do with it planks, nails, and a hammer. Someone adds a fire object/tile and makes it so you and zombies can be set on fire with it. Someone else adds a hazmat suit which protects you from fire. Someone else adds a new Hazmat Zombie which is fire-immune. The possibilities are ridiculous.